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For a century, Harry Houdini has been safely filed away in the public imagination as a nostalgic variety act: a man in monochrome film escaping handcuffs, water tanks, and straightjackets.
This series smashes that myth.
Hosted by “psychological illusionist” Derren Brown, How Houdini Made Magic reframes a penniless immigrant refugee named Erik Weisz as a prophetic, hyper-modern visionary. Long before the birth of Silicon Valley, modern political spin rooms, or algorithmic social media, Houdini cracked the code of modern fame. He didn't just escape physical boxes; he manipulated suspense, pioneered viral guerrilla marketing, employed the legal system to protect his brand, and mastered the dark arts of post-truth media. He created magic in far more ways than you think.
Against a backdrop of vaudeville and societal revolution, Derren explores the lesser-known identities of a magician who continues to inspire him and countless other magicians: Houdini as an advertising guru, a new media innovator, a sceptic… a spy?
We’ll come to realise that today’s world actually closely mirrors the ‘sepia-tinted’ world Houdini operated in: a time of rapid industrialisation, intense social change, massive wealth inequality, widespread social activism, global conflict, cultural revolutions, and immense technological advancement. We are living in an attention economy running on the exact behavioural hacks, artificial friction, and narrative illusions engineered by Harry Houdini over a century ago.
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How Houdini Made Magic: 10. Cement your legacy
In the concluding chapter of How Houdini Made Magic, Derren Brown explores how even in death, Houdini knew how to ensure his legend would endure. The legendary death-defier would eventually fall, not to a locked water cell or an icy river,
How Houdini Made Magic: 9. Stay relevant
World War I and the Spanish Flu caused devastation. Estimates are that up to 120 million people died as a result of both in 6 years - many of them relatively young. It led to the revival of an already popular new religion: Spiritualism. Spi
How Houdini Made Magic: 8. Keep ahead of the times
During the filming of the 1919 film, The Grim Game, there was a real-life mid-air plane crash. The star of the movie was the greatest escape artist of all time: Harry Houdini. So how did the producers capitalise on the crash? By telling the
How Houdini Made Magic: 7. Master the media
“It was the making of Houdini”. That’s how one magician described Houdini’s dramatic “Mirror Handcuff escape”. In London’s Hippodrome, in 1904, Houdini wowed the 4000 gripped audience members as he broke free from handcuffs designed by the
How Houdini Made Magic: 6. Make influential friends
Documentary evidence shows that when Harry Houdini first arrived in the UK, he struck up a friendship, of sorts, with a man who would go on to pioneer British espionage. A man who would go on to be the inspiration for the character “M” in I
How Houdini Made Magic: 5. Protect your brand
When an authoritarian empire threatens to brand you a fraud and destroy your legacy, how do you fight back? Derren Brown explores the high-stakes legal battles that helped cement Houdini’s European triumph. Arriving in a hostile Berlin wher
How Houdini Made Magic: 4. Advertise
Houdini had made it big in America. At the very start of the 20th century, however, the pinnacle for performers was not the fledgling States, but Europe. So Houdini boarded a ship to London, where he learned how to make noise. Derren Brown
How Houdini Made Magic: 3. Know your audience
Houdini almost gave up on the act that would make him a star: the handcuff escape. But with his wife’s encouragement, he persisted. And it paid off. Join Derren Brown as we learn how Houdini went from a sideshow hustler to the big time. In
How Houdini Made Magic: 2. Find your voice
In the late 19th Century, a young Hungarian immigrant called Eric Weisz chose magic as the means to provide for his ageing mother. He found inspiration in the form of a memoir, and his identity morphed: young Eric became Harry Houdini, and
How Houdini Made Magic: 1. Find your motivation
One hundred years after his death, how did an ordinary immigrant child transform himself into the most famous magician in history? In episode one of How Houdini Made Magic, psychological illusionist Derren Brown traces the early life of Eri
How Houdini Made Magic: Trailer
For a century, Harry Houdini has been safely filed away in the public imagination as a nostalgic variety act: a man in monochrome film escaping handcuffs, water tanks, and straightjackets. This series smashes that myth. Hosted by “psycholog
The Hitler Diaries Scandal: 10. Downfall
Andrew Hunter Murray tracks down Hitler’s faked diaries to the Bundesarchiv – the Federal Archive – in Koblenz. How did these slim A4 notebooks cause such enormous trouble? But the archivists have one more surprise in store. After all these
The Hitler Diaries Scandal: 9. The Trial
It’s May 1983, and everything is falling apart for Gerd Heidemann. Now the heat is on forger Konrad Kujau too. How long can he stay incognito? Millions of Deutschmarks are unaccounted for, reputations lie in tatters. Who will take the blame
The Hitler Diaries Scandal: 8. Bunker Mentality
Stern’s editorial and management team dig in, sticking by their story and their journalist Gerd Heidemann. Hugh Trevor-Roper returns to Cambridge shaken, hiding away in the master’s lodge at Peterhouse. Meanwhile, Dr Josef Henke of the Fede
The Hitler Diaries Scandal: 7. An Opera Set for Hell
It’s Monday, 25 April 1983, the day of the big press conference at Stern’s offices in Hamburg. The world’s media is assembled, awaiting the ‘scoop of the century’. The room is packed and Stern’s team, along with British historian Hugh Trevo
The Hitler Diaries Scandal: 6. Final Proofs
It’s April 1983 and in Hamburg, Stern is just putting the final touches to its coverage and its promotional film. But for TV producer Barbara Dickmann, something seems very off with her final interviewee – the journalist behind the scoop, G
The Hitler Diaries Scandal: 5. Money for Old Roper
It’s spring 1983 and Stern magazine’s inner circle is making frenzied preparations to launch its scoop of the century. Deals are being cut in media empires from London to Paris to New York. The Times and Sunday Times, newly acquired by Rupe
The Hitler Diaries Scandal: 4. Fried Potatoes and Forgery
It’s early 1981 and the forger Konrad Kujau and the journalist Gerd Heidemann are about to come face to face. Everything’s in motion - Stern management and a small team of editorial staff are on board, sworn to secrecy from colleagues and t
The Hitler Diaries Scandal: 3. Champagne Connie
Andrew Hunter Murray travels to the scene of the crime, just outside Stuttgart, from where the forger Konrad Kujau ran his cottage industry. Who was this man, prone to splash the cash in local bars and have a good time while knocking out fo
The Hitler Diaries Scandal: 2. The Bloodhound
It’s 1976, Hamburg, and star reporter for Stern magazine, Gerd Heidemann, is entertaining old Nazis on board his boat – formerly Herman Göring’s yacht, the Carin II. Known for his dogged pursuit of a scoop, Heidemann’s patch is slowly but s
The Hitler Diaries Scandal: 1. The Crash
On 21 April, 1945, in the hamlet of Börnersdorf, Eastern Germany, a Junkers plane plummets from the sky. It crashes and bursts into flames. A few iron boxes are salvaged from the wreckage. Rumour spreads that Hitler’s personal effects are i
The Hitler Diaries Scandal: Trailer
Writer and broadcaster Andrew Hunter Murray uncovers last century’s biggest ever publishing scandal, a forgery which rocked the world and destroyed reputations. When Germany’s biggest magazine Stern announced in 1983 that they’d found the l
Invisible Hands: The American Century: 6. America First!
It’s 1991 in New Hampshire and a cheerfully pugnacious TV pundit and political insider is announcing his campaign for the Republican nomination. His name is Pat Buchanan and what he is about to say will shock the room. Not only does he chal
Invisible Hands: The American Century: 5. Wolfie
A man sits in the Pentagon terrified. The building is shaking. He thinks it’s an Earthquake. In fact it’s 9/11 and this man senses an opportunity. To drag America out of its post Vietnam stupor and re-assert itself on the world stage. The m
Invisible Hands: The American Century: 4. Rolling Thunder
March 1965 Vietnam. American fighter jets are taking off to bomb munitions depot in the North. A few days later, American ground troops arrive in the jungle. They would stay there for almost a decade, dropping more bombs on Vietnam than in
Invisible Hands: The American Century: 3. Operation Ajax
1953 Tehran. An American diplomat called Kermit Roosevely III rides through the city’s streets on his way to see the Shah of Iran. Although he can’t see anything because he’s riding in the boot covered in a Persian carpet. He doesn’t want t
Invisible Hands: The American Century: 2. The Prophet
A man wakes up in the middle of the night in Moscow. He is sick. Shivery. Feverish. But he has a mission. A mission that will end up changing the course of world history. After World War Two was over, America was ready for peace. And to con
Invisible Hands: The American Century: 1. Mr Nobody
This is the story of the most important person you've probably never heard of. The man who made the dollar the centre of the world. And America along with it. His name is Harry Dexter White and, as an economist at the Treasury, he had a vis
Invisible Hands: The American Century: Trailer
David Dimbleby introduces the story of how America became a superpower through the invisible hands who made it happen.
Sixty Years of Hurt: Bonus Episode: David Baddiel live at Crossed Wires Podcast Festival Fringe
Ahead of England's 2026 World Cup match with Mexico, David Baddiel and Nick Robinson reflect on what it means to be an England Men's Football fan. They discuss National Anthems and football songs, power vs the underdog, the emotionality of
